AIDA sales model – Understanding AIDA
The AIDA sales model was developed by American advertising and sales pioneer Elias St. Elmo Lewis in 1898. Today his idea is often referred to as the AIDA model. A.I.D.A. acronym stands for awareness, interest, desire and action.
A sales funnel is a marketing concept that maps out the journey a customer goes through when making any kind of purchase. The model uses a funnel as an analogy because a large number of potential customers may begin at the top-end of the sales process, but only a fraction of these people actually end up making a purchase.
The AIDA model describes the four stages a consumer needs to go through to become a customer. During these four stages, your content will ideally attract attention to your brand, generate interest in your product or service, stimulate a desire for it, and spur action to try or buy it.
Here is a brief overview of the AIDA model :
- Awareness: creating brand awareness or affiliation with your product or service.
- Interest: generating interest in the benefits of your product or service, and sufficient interest to encourage the buyer to start to research further.
- Desire: for your product or service through an ’emotional connection’, showing your brand personality. Move the consumer from ‘liking’ it to ‘wanting it’.
- Action: CTA – Move the buyer to interact with your company and taking the next step ie. downloading a brochure, making the phone call, joining your newsletter, or engaging in live chat etc.
- Retention: We all know that this is key to up sell, cross-sell, referrals, Advocacy and the list goes on..
Awareness
At this stage, the prospect learns about your existing solution, product or service. They might also become aware of the problems that they need to solve and the possible ways to deal with it. This is when they visit your website for the first time, which they found from an ad, Google search, a post shared on social media or another traffic source.
Interest
At this stage, the prospect is actively looking for solutions to their problems and ways to achieve their goals.They search for solutions on Google. This is when you can attract them with some great content. Now is the time when he expresses his interest in your product or service. He follows you on social media and subscribes to your list.
Decision
At this stage, the prospect is making the decision that he wants to take advantage of your solution. They are paying more attention to what you offer, including different packages and options, so he can make the final decision to purchase. This is when sales offers are made by using sales pages, webinars, calls, etc.
Action
At this stage, the prospect is becoming a customer by finalizing the deal with you. They’re signing the contract and clicking the purchase button.
Then the money is transferred to your bank account. It’s important to state that there might be additional stages to your sales funnel. Your interaction with a customer doesn’t end with a successful stage.
Retention
At this stage, you have your customer onboard your company. This stage requires you to focus on keeping customers happy to convert them into repeat customers and brand advocates. Word of mouth is a powerful force and no one can do it better than a happy customer.
To keep customers happy, you need to help your customers with all aspects and problems related to what they bought from you. Basically, you want them to stay engaged with your product/service. You can do that by sharing content such as:
- Emails
- Special Offers
- Surveys/Outreach and follow-ups
- Product usage guides
- Technical assistance literature
AIDA sales model, or any other marketing formula, will only work when your message is perfectly aligned with your buyer personas, which includes demographics information, company and role details, and other critical data that can help you precision-target your marketing message further.
If you haven’t yet developed a buyer persona, your job is to use your research to investigate, then define, the demographic and psychographic of each prospect or customer.
Here you will find great Examples of Successful AIDA Formula Use: https://www.crazyegg.com/blog/aida-copywriting-formula/
